Free Trial

Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK) Competitors

Merck & Co., Inc. logo
$82.36 +0.55 (+0.67%)
Closing price 03:59 PM Eastern
Extended Trading
$82.25 -0.11 (-0.13%)
As of 07:59 PM Eastern
Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more.

MRK vs. AMGN, CORT, GILD, MRNA, VRTX, ABBV, BMY, JNJ, LLY, and PFE

Should you be buying Merck & Co., Inc. stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Merck & Co., Inc. include Amgen (AMGN), Corcept Therapeutics (CORT), Gilead Sciences (GILD), Moderna (MRNA), Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX), AbbVie (ABBV), Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Eli Lilly and Company (LLY), and Pfizer (PFE). These companies are all part of the "medical" sector.

Merck & Co., Inc. vs. Its Competitors

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) and Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, profitability, media sentiment and institutional ownership.

Merck & Co., Inc. pays an annual dividend of $3.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.9%. Amgen pays an annual dividend of $9.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. Merck & Co., Inc. pays out 47.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Amgen pays out 86.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Merck & Co., Inc. has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years and Amgen has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years. Merck & Co., Inc. is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Merck & Co., Inc. has a net margin of 27.27% compared to Amgen's net margin of 17.39%. Amgen's return on equity of 176.11% beat Merck & Co., Inc.'s return on equity.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
Merck & Co., Inc.27.27% 43.23% 17.11%
Amgen 17.39%176.11%12.39%

Merck & Co., Inc. has a beta of 0.39, meaning that its stock price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Amgen has a beta of 0.49, meaning that its stock price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500.

In the previous week, Merck & Co., Inc. had 16 more articles in the media than Amgen. MarketBeat recorded 80 mentions for Merck & Co., Inc. and 64 mentions for Amgen. Merck & Co., Inc.'s average media sentiment score of 1.43 beat Amgen's score of 1.05 indicating that Merck & Co., Inc. is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
Merck & Co., Inc.
69 Very Positive mention(s)
2 Positive mention(s)
8 Neutral mention(s)
1 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive
Amgen
47 Very Positive mention(s)
1 Positive mention(s)
10 Neutral mention(s)
2 Negative mention(s)
3 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive

Merck & Co., Inc. presently has a consensus price target of $109.19, indicating a potential upside of 32.57%. Amgen has a consensus price target of $307.82, indicating a potential upside of 3.69%. Given Merck & Co., Inc.'s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Merck & Co., Inc. is more favorable than Amgen.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
Merck & Co., Inc.
1 Sell rating(s)
12 Hold rating(s)
6 Buy rating(s)
2 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.43
Amgen
2 Sell rating(s)
12 Hold rating(s)
8 Buy rating(s)
1 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.35

Merck & Co., Inc. has higher revenue and earnings than Amgen. Merck & Co., Inc. is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Amgen, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
Merck & Co., Inc.$64.17B3.22$17.12B$6.8711.99
Amgen$33.42B4.78$4.09B$10.9627.08

76.1% of Merck & Co., Inc. shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.5% of Amgen shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of Merck & Co., Inc. shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Amgen shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Merck & Co., Inc. beats Amgen on 11 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.

Get Merck & Co., Inc. News Delivered to You Automatically

Sign up to receive the latest news and ratings for MRK and its competitors with MarketBeat's FREE daily newsletter.

New MarketBeat Followers Over Time

This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding MRK and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip Chart

Media Sentiment Over Time

This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
Skip Chart

MRK vs. The Competition

MetricMerck & Co., Inc.Large Cap Pharma IndustryMedical SectorNYSE Exchange
Market Cap$206.81B$253.53B$5.49B$20.52B
Dividend Yield4.09%2.92%5.38%3.76%
P/E Ratio11.9927.7626.2127.84
Price / Sales3.225.02405.8437.43
Price / Cash8.3613.7336.4921.79
Price / Book4.4917.718.054.55
Net Income$17.12B$8.49B$3.15B$984.95M
7 Day Performance3.29%1.89%1.85%3.58%
1 Month Performance8.05%2.72%4.81%6.04%
1 Year Performance-35.52%-1.87%34.86%14.49%

Merck & Co., Inc. Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
MRK
Merck & Co., Inc.
4.9963 of 5 stars
$82.36
+0.7%
$109.19
+32.6%
-36.1%$205.43B$64.17B10.5075,000Positive News
AMGN
Amgen
4.3348 of 5 stars
$282.52
+0.8%
$309.22
+9.4%
-6.6%$151.92B$33.42B25.7828,000Positive News
CORT
Corcept Therapeutics
4.7135 of 5 stars
$72.65
-1.8%
$138.25
+90.3%
+112.2%$7.70B$675.04M62.63300Positive News
GILD
Gilead Sciences
4.8378 of 5 stars
$107.12
+1.1%
$110.55
+3.2%
+62.8%$133.25B$28.75B22.5517,600Positive News
Insider Trade
MRNA
Moderna
4.3622 of 5 stars
$27.22
+1.3%
$46.61
+71.2%
-75.3%$10.53B$3.24B-3.125,800Trending News
Options Volume
VRTX
Vertex Pharmaceuticals
4.7172 of 5 stars
$445.49
-0.1%
$513.14
+15.2%
-4.1%$114.40B$11.02B-113.646,100Positive News
ABBV
AbbVie
4.9389 of 5 stars
$188.09
+1.5%
$211.29
+12.3%
+11.5%$331.90B$56.33B79.9655,000Trending News
BMY
Bristol Myers Squibb
4.8968 of 5 stars
$46.76
+0.2%
$58.00
+24.1%
+15.0%$95.18B$48.30B17.5234,100
JNJ
Johnson & Johnson
4.8483 of 5 stars
$152.45
+0.1%
$170.88
+12.1%
+6.4%$367.03B$89.33B16.97138,100Positive News
LLY
Eli Lilly and Company
4.9875 of 5 stars
$795.29
+0.4%
$1,011.61
+27.2%
-15.1%$752.38B$49.00B64.6047,000Positive News
PFE
Pfizer
4.8453 of 5 stars
$24.31
+0.2%
$29.17
+20.0%
-11.3%$138.13B$63.63B17.6181,000Trending News
Dividend Announcement

Related Companies and Tools


This page (NYSE:MRK) was last updated on 7/2/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
From Our Partners